Honore de Balzac Quotes

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

You are not going to change the minds of people who are looking for attention.

Tell a man something is bad, and he's not at all sure he wants to give it up. Describe it as stupid, and he knows it's the better part of caution to listen.

You'd just be amazed what people will do. You really would. And not crazy people. Ostensibly normal people. When the right person touches the right button in someone, you can get them to do almost anything.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.

We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself.

The human race is governed by its imagination.

Rhetoric, which is the use of language to inform or persuade, is very important in shaping public opinion. We are very easily fooled by language and how it is used by others.

If you can tell a story well, you can move people to do something.

Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.

I think it was when I realised I could talk anybody into doing just about anything I wanted them to.

I have no idea what goes on in another person's mind. As a legislator, I need to be good at persuading people, counting votes and getting to 50 percent plus one. I don't go back and say, 'Why did this person get to the right position?' It's only, 'Are you yes or are you no?'

None of us is immune to suggestion. We are social beings and live in a social world.

We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.

In life, particularly in public life, psychology is more powerful than logic.

When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

You have convinced me that you are right. Now go out there and force me to do it.

I could sway people with words—words that welled up within me.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire

Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.

In psychology and behavioral economics, people have shown that if you just describe options in a certain way, or make some features of a situation salient, you can get people to do and even see what you want. You don't have to be a Jedi to manipulate people's attention.

Trump, in the crinkling of an eye, senses better than anyone the insecurity of people, that nobody knows whether anything is good or bad until they are told, and he is quite willing to tell them immediately.

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.

As a Shakespeare character, if you can persuade someone in a sentence or a speech, you've got it right.